Victorian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 31st March)

Best Days: Exposed beaches tomorrow, Friday and Saturday mornings, keen surfers Monday morning, Wednesday morning east of Melbourne

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Background W/SW swell with morning N winds ahead of sea breezes to end off the week
• Building mid-period SW swell Sun, strongest Mon, easing slowly from Tue, but more so Wed
• Light to moderate onshore winds Sun AM, strengthening, similar Mon but remaining weak out of the S into the afternoon, SE on Tue and N/NE Wed AM

Recap

A small kick in swell yesterday morning to 2ft+ on the Surf Coast and 4ft on the Mornington Peninsula with light winds and decent conditions before sea breezes kicked in.

The swell eased into the afternoon and today we've got smaller 1-2ft waves on the Surf Coast, with bumpy 2-3ft sets to the east.

This week and next (Apr 1 – 9)

We'll see a small, inconsistent, background swell across the state through the end of the week and morning N'ly winds will favour the beaches across the state. The Surf Coast doesn't look to top 1-2ft tomorrow and Friday with inconsistent 3ft sets to the east.

Saturday looks similar in size and local offshore winds (N/NE Mornington Peninsula, N/NW on the Surf Coast), will shift more NW through the afternoon.

We then look at the frontal progression firing up under the country Friday through the weekend, with moderate levels of mid-period swell due from Sunday through Wednesday.

The frontal progression isn't overly strong but it is broad, elongated and sustained with fetches of strong to gale-force W/SW winds projecting through our western, then south-western swell windows, strongest south-west of us into Saturday and Sunday.

What we should see is building surf Sunday, though now strongest Monday. The Surf Coast should build from 2ft+ Sunday morning, 4ft to the east with sets pushing to 3ft+ and 4-6ft respectively later afternoon. Monday should then see 3-4ft sets on the Surf Coast and 6ft range to the east, easing slowly Tuesday.

Winds aren't ideal with a light W/SW breeze early Sunday due to strengthen from the S/SW through the day, with less than favourable, light to moderate SW-S/SW winds on Monday, swinging S through the day. There's a slim chance of early W'ly winds on the Surf Coast, but we'll confirm this Friday. It looks less likely than it did on Monday.

Unfavourable SE winds are due into Tuesday as the swell eases, best Wednesday on the beaches with a N/NE offshore and easing surf from 3ft on the Surf Coast and 4-5ft to the east.

Longer term the surf will continue to ease into the end of the week, but we should see a strong polar front delivering a moderate sized SW groundswell next weekend with hopefully light winds. More on this Friday.